Happy Reading!

I sat on the beach at Camp Half-Blood, letting the water from the waves lap at my toes. Although it was the middle of winter the water didn't bother me. That's probably what happens when you're the son of the sea god. Don't get me wrong, it was cold out, but here at camp the weather was regulated so it was only mildly chilly. It was a nice change from the icy weather we'd been having back home. I live in New York City with my mom and stepfather Paul. However, right now I was on Christmas break.

The camp was fuller than I'd ever seen it – well, not including the summer of course. More and more demigods, like me, were being found and brought to camp where they were trained. Several of them had decided to stay here year round. I knew Chiron was happy about that; it gave him something to do during the off-season besides play pinochle with Mr. D (that's Dionysus in case you were wondering).

I thought about how my mom had felt about me coming here for the next two weeks. Christmas had already passed and I knew I would be bored sitting at home the remainder of the vacation. Hey, when you're ADHD, two weeks is a long time not to have anything to do. I don't think my mom was that upset about me leaving to come to camp (she'd been through that many times already and had been somewhat cool about it); I think it was more she wasn't too sure about me spending the two weeks here with Annabeth. You see, Annabeth is my girlfriend.

I grinned as my eyes automatically shot to the spot where we had been thrown in the lake where we had shared what I still consider the best underwater kiss ever. We've had a few more since then.

I'll admit it: I'm pretty excited that Annabeth agreed to spend the remainder of Christmas break at camp. She had flown to San Francisco to spend Christmas with her dad and stepmom and, although I see her all the time in New York, I still missed her. Although I most definitely will not be admitting that to her anytime soon. I can hear her now: 'Can't you last a week without falling to pieces without me, Seaweed Brain?' Her teasing would be relentless, but I would take it. Because it's Annabeth.

She had been going to school in New York City this year, some fancy boarding school for brainiacs. Apparently she loved it. Which is great for her, but it takes up a good amount of her time, always studying or staying after class to work on extra credit projects. So between that and her plans to redesign Olympus we didn't get to spend a ton of time together. Well, we do spend time together (pretty much every day) but most times Annabeth drones on about her new designs or her math project that she's excited about while I look at her stupidly and think about how pretty she is. You know, a typical teenage relationship.

We both agreed that spending the two weeks here at camp would be a good break for us. I agreed not to stare at her stupidly and she agreed not to mention her architecture plans. I figured we would get about thirty minutes of quality time together before one of us breaks. In my head I heard a slight groan and saw my best friend roll his eyes. Grover. Stupid empathy link. Since Annabeth and I had started dating he had been making that face quite a bit. Which is ridiculous coming from him, especially considering how goo-goo he is over his girlfriend Juniper. I guess there's something I should explain about both of them: you see, Grover is a satyr and Juniper is his dryad girlfriend. They've been dating for a couple years now and really are cute together. Did I just say that? I could see Grover gagging himself in my head. Get out of my head, G-man!

"Percy!" I heard someone call. I grinned at the familiar voice. My favorite voice, actually. I turned towards the sound and felt my grin grow foolishly bigger. Gods she was beautiful. I don't think I'll ever get over the sight of Annabeth. The way her blond curls bounced slightly over her shoulders as she walked – that is when she didn't have her hair pulled back, which is most of the time actually.

I'd seen beautiful women before: Calypso, Aphrodite (who oddly never looked exactly the same each time I saw her); none of them could hold a candle to Annabeth. I heard a slight rumbling of thunder in the distance. Now, any normal mortal would have brushed that off as a storm coming. Me? I knew better. I said a quick silent apology to Aphrodite for saying Annabeth was more beautiful than she was. Even though I really thought she was.

As she neared I could see Annabeth wore a grey jacket over her orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and jeans. Even from a distance I could see she had on her camp necklace, a bead for each summer she had been here. I fingered mine without thinking. Five beads. Five different summers. Five different adventures. All five I got to share with my best friend.

"I thought we agreed no more stupid staring," Annabeth complained when she reached me. I looked up at her and grinned sheepishly. Darn. She had caught that.

"I thought we said no architecture talk," I said, pointing to the thick book she carried. After a few moments of deciphering, I finally read 'Ancient Greek Revival: Finding Ancient Greece in the Modern World.' Dyslexia makes it a little harder to read things like that. Ancient Greek? No problem! English that I've been speaking for sixteen years? Forget it. I'm not sure how Annabeth manages to read all the books she reads.

"I'm not going to talk about it. I just thought I'd bring it with me in case you were interested," she said, giving me a wide grin. I knew that look. She had just found her next favorite book and was chomping at the bit to tell me about it.

"Well of course I'm interested in it," I said, gritting my teeth as I inwardly groaned. Annabeth laughed and rolled her eyes, probably not believing a word I said.

She sat down next to me. Very close to me. I leaned back on my right arm which was behind her.

"Hi," she said softly. I grinned. Her grey eyes were the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. They reminded me of two silver moons.

"Hi," I replied. I leaned closer to her and kissed her. That's when she surprised me. I felt her toss her book aside (for those of you who knew my girlfriend that was definitely a no-no in her book; no pun intended) and wrap her arms around my neck, nearly knocking me off balance. I steadied myself and put my hand on her waist. I was just about to pull her closer to me when a sharp crack of thunder sounded and a bolt of lightening hit the ground a few yards from us. Annabeth and I jumped apart.

"Mother!" she cried angrily, her cheeks turning a cute shade of red. Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time that had happened to us.

Athena finally approved of me but she was still pretty wary of me getting too close to her daughter. A second crack of thunder sounded followed by a wave crashing in the distance. I snickered quietly.

"Thanks Dad," I muttered. My dad, Poseidon, and Athena weren't exactly on friendly terms. I'm sure trying to electrocute his favorite son didn't exactly do anything to warm himself up to my girlfriend's mom either.

Once we had both gotten over our shock from our parents we scooted closer again, this time making sure to keep a safe distance from each other.

"So tell me what your book's about," I said. I caught a happy gleam in Annabeth's eyes as she grabbed her book and opened it.

"I found this the other day. What do you think of this for Olympus? I thought maybe if we did something like this and then added a few columns and… Percy? Percy! Are you even paying attention?" Annabeth snapped her fingers in front of my eyes. I wasn't paying attention. She had lost me at 'I found this the other day.'

"Sorry, yes, columns," I stammered, blushing slightly from the stern look she was giving me; she looked just like her mother when she did that.

"Percy! Annabeth!" I heard Grover call behind us. Thank the gods! I thought. We both turned towards Grover and saw him hurrying towards us, an upset look on his face. Annabeth and I exchanged uh-oh looks and pushed ourselves from the ground, brushing the sand off.

"What's up?" I asked when Grover reached us.

"Chiron… needs… see you… house," Grover said, huffing and out of breath.

"Is something wrong?" Annabeth asked as we began walking towards the Big House.

"I'm not really sure what's wrong. Nico showed up this morning and talked to Chiron and Mr. D for a long time. He seemed pretty shaken up," Grover answered.

Nico, while he lived here at camp most of the year, liked to spend the occasional month or so in the Underworld with his father Hades. Although don't ask me why; I've been there and it's most definitely not the ideal vacation spot. I think during the war Nico had earned a ton of respect from his dad and they had grown to like each other. I doubted they'd ever be seen having a father-son day at the ball field or playing catch in the backyard, but I'm sure they found their own creepy Underworld things to do together.

When we reached the Big House we saw Mr. D sitting by the fire. He was wearing his normal leopard print shirt with a pair of purple running pants and tennis shoes. I know you're probably thinking what would make a person dress like that. I wish I could tell you but I'm pretty sure being the god of wine helps. Mr. D seemed to sense my thoughts because he was staring straight at me, his eyes flaring purple.

"Well, well, well. Perry Jensen. Didn't want to see you here," he said.

"Don't you mean expect to see him here, sir?" Grover asked innocently. Mr. D shrugged.

"No," he said simply. Ignoring Mr. D (which is not the brightest thing to do to a god, but there were more important matters at hand) I turned to Chiron who had wheeled into the room. I wasn't sure why he was in his wheelchair (Chiron's really a centaur but somehow magically can fit into a wheelchair); maybe because it was cold. He had a thick looking afghan over his lap. "Percy! Annabeth! Welcome back," he said with forced joviality.

"Thanks, Chiron," Annabeth said, giving him a quick hug. "Grover said something was wrong. Where's Nico?" As if on cue Nico walked into the room. He was taller than the last time I saw him, his black hair a little longer and shaggier. He looked pale and worn too, as if he hadn't been sleeping well. Although I guess staying in the Underworld could do that to you.

"Hey, Nico. Long time no see," I said, shaking the younger boy's hand.

"Hey, Percy. Sorry I haven't come to visit more often. I've been busy helping my father," he said solemnly.

"What's going on?" I asked, glancing between him and Chiron.

"Nico?" Chiron asked. I turned back to him.

"Dad's been a wreck. Things have gotten really bad in the Underworld. Hold ups, applications not being processed, the complaints box overflowing…"

"Wait, the Underworld has a complaints box?" I asked. I could only imagine what some of the complaints would say. 'I was hoping for Elysium; why am I in Asphodel Fields? Were my good deeds not good enough?' 'That three-headed dog is barking too loud.' 'It's so dark here. Can't we spruce up the place with a little more color?' Annabeth elbowed me in the side, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Why is Hades letting all that happen? What's wrong with him?" she asked concernedly. Nico sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He looked like he could cry any moment.

"My stepmother, Persephone… she's gone."

AN #2: Thoughts? Right track? Complete crap? I'd love to hear your thoughts!